ARLINGTON, Texas -- Shortly after Chad Ryland's game-winning field goal went through the uprights to seal a 33-30 comeback, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens flew down the hallway and into the locker room by himself. No other teammate, coach, or staff member moved faster to get into the locker room and out of AT&T Stadium after Dallas made ugly history with its blown 14-point lead. Pickens first one to the lockers, jogged down the tunnel before most media could even set up @1053thefan pic.twitter.com/RVab4T1c5M Pickens' lack of targets was glaring.
CeeDee Lamb led the way with 11 targets on Sunday while tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford was second with five targets. Pickens caught two passes for 48 yards. Four targets in a game simply isn't enough.
Pickens hasn't been bad this season: his 533 yards receiving rank as the 15th most in the NFL in 2026, just behind Trey McBride and just in front of Garrett Wilson (527) and Ja'Marr Chase (492). He is still on pace to exceed 1,100 receiving yards, but it regularly feels like the Cowboys are leaving production out on the field. Since Schottenheimer blamed Pickens' lack of vigor for run blocking for the team's struggling offense in a loss to the Green Bay Packers, he has 10 targets across the last two games.
"If I had the answer, we'd get him involved. I'm not trying to be rude or whatever it is, but he made some plays. Anytime the ball went his way, he came up with them.
He had the one, unfortunately came back for a holding," quarterback Dak Prescott said. ... "I'm not sure about even how many targets he had. As I told y'all before, I go through the reads. [I] try to throw it to the open guy and stay consistent and true to that.
And so, I've got to go back and look at the film and see if I missed him, see if we could have went to him more, see if we could have went to CeeDee more. I feel like it was a game that CeeDee didn't have as many catches as per usual, but we still had a chance to win and should have won it." With the NFL trade deadline coming up in eight days on Nov. 10 and the Cowboys off to a 3-5 start and appearing to be going nowhere, it would make sense for Dallas to field trade calls for Pickens. He is playing out the franchise tag, and he will command near-top-of-the-market value on his second multi-year NFL contract.
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